And, despite having just seven games to play to further dent United's seemingly inevitable title success, the midfielder is holding hope of a lasting negative effect from the derby loss to the Red Devils.

"We know it's very unlikely," Milner told The Times. "United have plenty of experience at closing out titles and they probably haven’t had too many gaps as big as this before.

"They'll still be confident but we did all we could do in the derby - and hopefully we've put a bit of doubt in there. It could be a bit of a stumble and if this rocks them then great. Mathematically it's not over. It’s still possible.

"Whether it's over or not, though, our objective doesn’t change and that’s to win every game between now and the end of the season. If we do that then we’ll win the FA Cup and finish runners-up it will not have been a bad season at all."